House Improvements #29. Main Construction Week 1

With the delays in the foundations, it was decided to start construction immediately in the new year instead of a week or 2 before the holiday. With the start of construction imminent I put in the order for the first load of materials. Primarily the 1 1/2" x 6" that would be used for the frame and some 2"x4" and 2"x6". 2 days later this was outside.

 

As agreed, construction on the frame of the extension started last week on Monday the 12th of January. We had a meeting with the builders on Monday morning early and as we set off to work, they set of to fetch all there equipment.

Arriving home on Monday and Tuesday was a slight disappointment with apparently very little visible progress (although they had fetched a lot of equipment on Monday and put down the bottom support on Tuesday and measured all the relative heights, so they had been working hard).

Coming home on Wednesday was a different story. Suddenly most of the wall frames for the ground floor were in place. I travelled to Germany on Thursday morning and when I came home on Saturday this is the site I saw.

 

 

Here's a view of the new "library" with it's large windows and high ceiling.

 

and here's the new entrance/porch.

Only issue this week was the telephone cable which did not survive a meeting with the chainsaw the used for removing the old cladding. This did not take long for me to fix and we had phone/internet again on Saturday evening.

With the frames of the first floor complete, week 2 was due to start with flooring for the 1st floor.

Summer Holiday Rota System (SHRS), a suggestion.

We discussed this briefly during the summer holiday in Cumbria and would like to go further on this idea, please discuss in the comments.

 

Why have a SHRS?

It will make it easier to reach a common decision each year, and it is good to be able to plan ahead. The Nicholls family is growing and communication about holiday plans can take a lot of time and effort.

What are the obligations?

It is great if as many as possible are able to join in on the common holiday, but it is entirely voluntary for an individual or a family. There should be a good reason for diverting from the rota one year, for example, somebody arranging a wedding with a desire for a common holiday in connection with this.

Specific responsibilities:

Those that live in a host country take the first initiative for arrangements that year. Those that do not live in neither Ireland, Finland or Norway are responsible for the “Other country” year (see below).

Here is the system:

It is based on the pattern since 2011 and we shall call it BISON.

B= Break year (2011)

I= Ireland (2012)

S= Finland (Soumi, since it makes a nice word!) (2013)

O= Other country (2014)

N= Norway

 

This means that it is Norway in 2015, and ahead the years will be like this:

2016 =B

2017= I

2018= S

2019= O

2020 = N

 

What now?

Comments and discussion please. Agree, Disagree, Don't know....